Tuesday, November 18, 2008

got milk?

I am completely restless. I know I should be writing my "personal narrative" for class right now. You know, I would actually be willing to write a pretty extensive paper if I didn't have to relate it to "course material" about all of the...you know what...nevermind.

That's not what I wanted to share...

It is really really hard to think about all of the small little positive things that happen and are around us in the day-to-day. A lot of times stress, exhaustion (, and carbs) get in the way of seeing some of the tiny little pleasures that are surrounding us.

So as I complain and procrastinate...

Today was a VERY cold day here...my hands actually went numb as I was walking to class. My body wasn't used to it, it was really longing for the flip-flopping, tank topping, sunglassing sunshine that graced us with it's presence for far too short of a time.

Enter delicious caffeine filled beverage from heaven.

Now, honestly, I've really been trying to cut back on all of the Starbucks runs. I mean iced-coffee, fine, but as the weather started getting cooler I was "treating" myself to delicious non-fat vanilla lattes that were costing me over $4.00!

I then researched how much it would be to buy an espresso/cappuccino/latte machine and let me just tell you, the president of the USA could not, let alone a lowly program assistant for a local community college, afford such extravagances.

So now, I'm left with my creative twist on a latte...and while that includes only regular coffee, some vanilla syrup-like chemicals, and manually shaken up milk (c'mon I had to get the foamy-ness somehow)....it was the highlight of my afternoon.

As I leaned against my counter, observing the milk droplets that were scattered all over my kitchen after my "manual foaming" *, I sipped my experiment and I'll tell you, I don't need some barista to create those fleeting moments of euphoria....oh no, not I.

*manual foaming: the art of placing warmed milk into a cocktail shaker, and shaking violently...